You don’t have to spend a fortune in a health food shop for better children’s snacks.
Most supermarkets have plenty of options for dealing with what the food industry calls the “home from school and starving” moment.
They can be more expensive - but are generally more filling, so kids can eat less but better. Here are some alternatives to the favourite children's treats.
Cheerio to crisps
Popcorn is good but watch out for the saltier brands. Some of them contain almost half a child’s recommended salt intake of 4g per day.
In a perfect world home-made popcorn with less salt would be best.
At home, unsalted nuts are a good alternative. But nuts are a no-no for schools because of allergies.
Sunflower and pumpkin seeds can be cheaper and more lunch-box friendly. Irish company Kelkin do a good resealable bag of sunflower seeds in supermarkets.
To make them tastier, spread a large batch on a tray, sprinkled with some soy sauce and toast them until they’re browned.
Store the toasted seeds in an airtight container and send them to school in small tubs mixed with some dried fruit or small chunks of cheese.
Ciao milk chocolate
Convert your kids to dark chocolate. Anything higher than 70 per cent cocoa solids contains more nutrients, less fat and less sugar than milk chocolate. It’s also more filling, so they should eat fewer squares.
Bye-bye biscuits
Rice cakes or oat cakes. Yes perhaps, dull as ditchwater, but you can add a topping of nut butter (again only for out-of-school snacks), or mashed banana for sweetness. Butter makes them more palatable too.
Drogheda company Lifeforce’s goods are widely available in supermarkets and do a good a four-grain version that includes wholegrain rice, millet, buckwheat and sesame.
If the youngsters baulk at rice cakes, try oat cakes, which are also widely available in supermarkets.
Sayonara to smoothies, fruit juices, fizzy drinks
Dieticians will tell you to always eat rather than drink your fruit, to get the benefits of the fibre and to limit your child’s intake of fruit sugar.
So fresh whole fruit is best.
Easy-peeling mandarins, bananas and small apples don’t need boxing, chopping or packing. To drink, just offer water or milk. As an alternative to fizzy drinks, dilute fruit juice with sparkling water.
Supplanting sugary yoghurts
Natural unsweetened yoghurt. Glenilen Farm does a great plain yoghurt with live bacteria which is now believed to help regulate our appetites.
Stir in fruit chunks, dried fruit, seeds and nuts to jazz it up.
Yoghurt is often put into snacks sold as “healthy” - but these can be full of sugar. Yoghurt-covered raisins can contain as much sugar as a chocolate bar. Cheese is satisfying and nutritious. There are snack-friendly versions like Cheestrings, but take a look at the price per kilo and you’ll realise you can buy a chunk of hand-made cheese for roughly the same price.
A French cheese like Comte or Irish Gubbeen, both available in supermarkets, are mild and child-friendly.
Slice it into cubes or strips and you have a less salty cheese snack than the highly packaged and pretty bland “children’s cheeses”.
